| 释义 |
Maya, n.2 and a.|ˈmɑːjə, ˈmaɪ(j)ə, ˈmeɪə|
Also 9 Maye.
[Sp.]
A. n.
a. A member of an ancient Indian people of Yucatan and Central America; these people collectively.
b. The language of this people.
B. adj. Of, pertaining to, or designating this people.
1825J. Conder Mod. Traveller Mexico & Guatimala I. 191 The number of these [Mexican] languages exceeds twenty, of which fourteen have grammars..tolerably complete; viz. the Mexican or Aztec, the Otomite,..the Maye or Yucatan. 1832J. Bell Syst. Geogr. V. 584 In the space between the Rio del Norte and the American frontier, are the following tribes: 1. The Tawakenoes, on the Rio Brassos, 200 warriors, 800 souls;..5. Mayes, at the mouth of the Guadaloupe river, 200 warriors, 800 souls. 1845Trans. Amer. Ethnol. Soc. I. 252 K has in the Maya a different sound from our c before a, o, u. 1875H. H. Bancroft Native Races Pacific States II. 117 This Maya culture. Ibid. 118 Yucatan was occupied in the sixteenth century by the Mayas proper. 1877[see Chibcha]. 1914T. A. Joyce Mexican Archæol. viii. 202 Both divisions of this people originally spoke Maya. Ibid. 203 The Maya language as a whole exhibits certain points of similarity to that of the Mixtec and Zapotec. Ibid. xi. 282 Of the land system among the Maya we know very little. 1928T. Gann Discoveries Cent. Amer. 89 The old man..knew no word of any language but Maya. Ibid. 206 In none of them [sc. cities] is the Maya arch found. 1959E. Tunis Indians 21/2 The Maya of Mexico were the only Indians who achieved a written language, with symbols that stood for individual words. 1974Nat. Geographic Nov. 661 In Guatemala's lofty highlands..Maya Indians dwell amid the cloud-ripping hulks of dead and dormant volcanoes. Ibid., Here live Maya-speaking Indians in villages that garland the lakeshore with a litany of saints' names.
Hence ˈMayan a., of, pertaining to, or designating the Mayas; n., one of the Mayan people; their language; ˈMayanist, an expert in, or student of, Mayan culture.
1889S. Hale Mexico viii. 82 The Mayan legends..tell of nothing but wars and conquests, struggles and defeats. 1911Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 335/2 These Pipils..migrated into territories previously occupied by an older race of Mayan origin... The easternmost limit of prehistoric Mayan civilization, on the Pacific coast of Central America is Fonseca Bay. 1923H. I. Priestley Mexican Nation ii, In the modern oil region along the Pánuco River and the coast, was a segregated group of Mayans. 1926Blackw. Mag. Nov. 647/2 This man..was of pure Maya blood, and was filled..with old Mayan lore and tradition. 1933E. Pinchon Viva Villa! x. 135 The craftsmanly and aristocratic Mayans and Tehuans of the south. 1950Caribbean Q. II. ii. 27 Later that year Dr. Linton Satterthwaite, Associate Curator of the Pennsylvania University Museum and a Mayanist of note, was put in touch with the writer. 1961T. Proskouriakoff in L. Deuel Conquistadors without Swords (1967) xxvii. 384 We Mayanists spend an inordinate amount of time deciphering half obliterated hieroglyphic texts. 1962L. Kemp tr. Leon-Portilla's Broken Spears iii. 31 By the time Cortes ransomed him from the natives eight years later he spoke Mayan fluently. 1965B. Ross Mexico i. 21 They asked him where he had obtained the cloth and the pottery? The Mayan said that it came from a land not very far away. 1968Listener 11 July 53/3 They describe the attempts of Olson, newly arrived in Yucatan, to come to terms with Mayan culture. Ibid. 54/1 He takes off for Yucatan unprepared for his task, learning Mayan as he goes, and from inadequate books. 1973New Yorker 24 Mar. 116/2 He got the word in Mayan for ‘road’ or ‘journey’. Ibid. 116/3 One can thus understand the interest among Mayanists when..it was announced that a wholly unknown fourth codex had come to light. 1973Listener 7 June 746/1 The Mayans..invented essentially the same way of writing large numbers as a sequence of digits that we use. |